Saturday, March 29, 2008

Raced in Cali today at the Ford Ironman California 70.3 today and had a solid day. I finished 17th overall and gained a lot of confidence heading into IMAZ.

Here is a quick summary.

Swim: Missed the first group and lead the second off course at the turn....sorry guys. This ended up being ok, b/c I got back to them and was able to sit in, instead of lead.

Bike: All solo, Normal Power was 308 watts for the ride. This is a 28watt personal best for me. The course was VERY tough. Hills and a lot of wind. I refused to sit in and pushed almost the entire ride.

Run: Suffered a bit b/c of riding hard. I was aiming to run 1:17 and ended up with a 1:20. I feel like I gained 3min on the ride, pushing the pace, so I was ok with it.

I now feel like I am strong enough to ride with almost anyone at IMAZ...The only guy to pass me on the bike was Steve Larsen. We all know that his might be the strongest cyclist in triathlon, so I feel ok with it :)

I think with warmer water and a better warm-up, that front group would not have been an issue...I am going to believe that for now anyway.

I will post more updates and a race report soon. Now it is off to Timex Team Camp and then just 10 short days to Game Day in Tempe.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Cali 70.3 is only about 2 days away and the body is starting to feel better. I am keeping a little bit of intensity in the 15hrs of training I have this week, so I don't fall victim to 'flatness' on race day.

Now is the time when you can think of a million different woulda, coulda, shoulda's....but it doesn't matter b/c there is nothing you can do about it. All you can do it focus on executing as close to 100% as possible on race day.

Although IMAZ is the big focus this spring, I hope to still do well on Saturday. There are some big names coming out to play.

If you would like to follow the race online. There will be live coverage at http://www.ironman.com/ The race starts at 6:40am Pacific Standard Time.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

All I can do is rest now. My achilles is a bit sore after my last week, so I am looking forward to the down time. I don't want to go into too much detail with my numbers, b/c that is all they are....training numbers and there are no awards for that. All about executing on race day.

The last 11 weeks have yielded 317 hours of training. 281,609 yards in the pool, 3,247 miles on the bike and 526 miles of running. I have raised my LT on the bike about 10-15 watts and made good progress in the pool and on the run. I am looking forward to resting and seeing what my fitness will bring on race day.

I will be racing Ironman California 70.3 this Saturday, you can follow the race (starting at 8:40 am central time) over at www.ironman.com I will then rest for 2 more weeks and race Ironman Arizona on April 13th, you can also follow the race (starting at 8:45 am central time) at www.ironman.com

I want to take a second to thank everyone that has helped me during this build. First, my coach Kurt Perham at http://www.pbmcoaching.com/. My two homestay's, The Partain's in FL and Russ and Julie out in AZ. My training would not have gone so smoothly without a nice place to live. Also, my family, friends and great sponsors for your support.

I will check in again in the next week or so, as I will have quite a bit of time on my hands. Time to get ahead on the coaching and maybe start some reading????? ....ok maybe movies.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

This last weekend I spent my last weekend in Clermont out at Lake Louisa State Park for the annual Florida's Great Escape triathlon. There is always a strong field that shows, and this year was no exception. Some of the Canadian National Team was is attendance, in addition to a few other elites from around the country.

On race morning, we were greeted by temps in the low 40's and a stiff north wind. NOT the typical early March weather. I have logged 30hrs of training in the 7 days prior to the race, but felt that I could make a good run, if things went well.

After a long warm-up, I got the start line for a the dreaded beach start. Lots of running and dolphining into the white-cap waves. I had the new Blue Seventy TST Wetsuit, which was a huge help. The flexibility in the newly designed shoulders is great. Unfortunately, me dolphining skills are not great and lost contact in the rough water. I did find my rhythm at the turn and managed to swim through the second group, which contained some good swimmers, so I was pleased.

Onto the bike, I knew I would be able to make up a bit of time, but I wasn't sure how much. With the cold temps I never was able to find my legs, despite riding my way up into third place off the bike. This was only my 3rd ride on my new Trek TTXSSL and it was great. All I can say is to go check out these bikes if you are looking for a great all around tri-bike.

Once in T2, my feet were FROZEN and I could not get my feet in my shoes....in fact, I could barely control what was going on with my feet. I finally came out onto the run in 5th or 6th and tried to push was hard as I could. I managed to run 16:51 for the 5k, which I was pleased with, considering I don't do much running over half ironman pace.

I crossed the line in 6th, but less than a minute off of 2nd. Seconds counted today.

Here is what I learned at this race:

#1 - ITU guys can run REALLY fast.

#2 - Transitions are REALLY important. Had I been able to have the speedy transitions that the first few guys did, I would have finished 3rd. Oh well, lesson learned.